Love Like Snow
by Velkan Nobody
Summary: Tarja, a snow leopard she-cub, befriends Simba and Nala and describes how their mutual love develops progressively. SNL  attempt! R&R!
1. Rain of Ashes

**Love Like Snow**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own TLK.

**Note:** First, thanks to my beta-reader, Arbarano. So this is the story I've been talking about, inspired on all the super awesome SNL fics I've been reading, an adorable pic I stumbled across while fooling around the TLK Fanart Archive, and one of HIM's most famous and beautiful songs, called **"Killing Loneliness**". It will be an experiment and its continuity will depend on reviews. The first chapter isn't as focused on Simba and Nala as further chapters will be; it's more like and intro to the narrator. Eventually, it will dissolve into a story in 3rd person with "I" interferences. It will revolve around Simba and Nala. The narrator is a sort of Watson, if you'd like to think of her that way. I hope you like it. Now, _warn your warmth to turn away..._

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_Press your lips to the sculptures and surely you'll stay... for of sugar and ice I am made... _(Love Like Winter, AFI)

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Chapter 1: Rain of Ashes

_Where's Mom?_ That was the first thought that sprang to my mind when I regained consciousness. It didn't matter where I was or how I had gotten there. All I wanted now was her comfort. Faint, dusty beams of orange light entered my wooden prison through the very few holes it had, but it was still too dark inside for me to distinguish anything clearly. I brought my eyes close enough to one of the narrow openings and studied my surroundings. The grasslands, soaked in flames and remnants of a once huge and scary shiny creature, extended for eternity before me. Only the bluish seam they shared with the night sky divided them from the rest of the world.

The view began to blur steadily as a mist of suffocating smoke took over. The polluted air swept into my secluded room, forcing me to slash desperately at the splintery walls. I broke out of the box only to be welcomed by a very hostile environment. Thick flames appeared to be moving to and fro, swaying in the gray wind on their dry, papery green wigs. Something seemed awfully out of place; I felt heavy and tickly (_bad_ tickly, as if on the edge of a faint), like I didn't belong here.

Mom always talked to my two brothers and me about how fires could save your life during extremely cold winters. Now, it was fulfilling a totally different purpose.

Oh, Mom and my annoying older brothers! I wished so hard I could be with them, playing under the falling snow. Valo and Lauri would surely tease me about being the weak only daughter and, as always, Mom would hush them severely and hold me close. Then, repented, they'd apologize and we would all cuddle together. Probably, we would've spent the night that way, all snugly squeezed together, had everything wending through my mind been real. But no. Not tonight.

Most likely, they were turning the Snowlands upside-down right now, trying to find me. Truth be told, not even I knew where I had wound up. The existence of places as extraordinary as this had never _ever_ crossed my mind. Vague memories helped me out a little, though not as much as I hoped. I could recall a face. A man? Yes! He carried one of those funny, loud toys humans always played with. Guns, that's how Mom referred to them. She'd said they killed.

Wait… was I dead? Maybe. The man had pointed his gun at me, after all. But Mom had promised that Dad would pick me up the day I died and take me to a beautiful land. That meant I was alive! Besides, around this thickly grass-covered ground, hot and dry and not at all beautiful, I couldn't find Dad. I felt my breath under my frantic sobs and drumming heart. _Undoubtedly alive,_ I sighed.

The smoke rose, gliding smoothly miles above where I stood, then swooped down, clouding it all. The toxic masses travelled fast down towards my lungs as I inhaled, poisoning the blood in my veins and then fleeing to repeat the process. More than once, the smoldering dust of whatever had crashed down and provoked this fire swam across the fog of toxins and almost chafed past my face. One of the mutilated parts of the beast lay beside me. I reached out for it with my right paw very carefully, in case it was still hot. Luckily, it had cooled down enough for my touch to last more than ten seconds. Metal, I concluded. So the badly mangled corpse scattered over the fields belonged to a _giant silver bird_. Back home, I'd sometimes gaze into the ever gray sky and catch them soaring by. Their growling wouldn't cease until they vanished. Boy, did humans ride cool creatures!

A reeling sensation struck me after spending some time breathing the burned air. I didn't become aware of it until a fierce explosion pulled me from my thoughts. The snowy mountains faded away before my delusional eyes. The blazing flames drew nearer, but wouldn't back away anymore. Winded by the stifling stench, my languid limbs gave in to gravity. I slumped helplessly onto the carpet of grass, listening to the faint jangling of the chains that bound me to this life. Pretty soon, they would break apart and release me. All I had to wait for was Dad.

A wan smile drew upon my face when fluffy little things, like snowflakes, landed on my back from the sky. I reveled in the image of myself rolling over and opening my mouth wide to let the frozen cloud tears in until I realized they didn't feel cold at all. Simultaneously marveled and disgusted, I shifted my gaze upwards, focusing on the rain of slowly descending cinders. It resembled a snowstorm so much that homesickness constricted my heart like tight, thorny creepers.

Why had I strayed from the stupid path in the first place? My family and I were just returning home and for some crazy reason of mine I had decided to chase a bird. Or a rodent. I couldn't recall which. The only thing I did remember was that it bore a coating which camouflaged it perfectly. Not even Mom, the deftest hunter of all snow leopards (at least she was to me), had located its exact position, although I could tell she knew it lay hidden somewhere not so far by the way she sniffed the air.

_Oh, yes! That's right._ I'd bounded off after it to show her how mighty a hunter I was. She'd tried to stop me, but I'd gone too fast. Big mistake there, though; my prey ended up leading me to the man with the loud toy.

Another startling explosion resounded as I played the gunshot in my head over and over again.

Finally, the light-headedness reached its peak and began dropping into a swoon. Before slipping from reality, a huge figure loomed up in front of me. Dad? No. It didn't look like a snow leopard. Whoever was staring at me had a brownish-gold pelt and thick reddish hair on his head and around his neck running all the way down to his chest. His eyes displayed a hungry seriousness. Yet, he didn't seem interested in hurting me. I looked up one last time to see the ashes fall like snow and blacked out…

ooo

"Is he going to be alright?"

"It's a girl…"

One zillion other quiet soughs echoed. However, my slightly perked ears grasped only what the first two male voices had uttered. The first, solemn and guttural, sent shivers down my spine; it probably belonged to something like the _thing_ that had found me asphyxiating on the smoke. The second, with a weird accent, scratched into my eardrums. What if… What if they were humans?

"She might be a leopard," suggested the first voice.

"I'm not so sure, Mufasa," explained the second.

Suddenly, a hand clutched my tail and lifted it up, a tingly tension needling into the point where it joined my rear. My eyes _had_ to see, but mingled fear and tiredness bungled their efforts. _They,_ whoever they were, would cut me open and mess with everything inside; I just knew it. Those nutty, curious humans!

The grasp loosened steadily as the seconds ticked. Once the second voice's bearer let go, my heart returned to an almost regular beating rate.

"She looks like one," stated the second voice, "but she comes from a much colder land than this."

"Why do you think so?"

"Her coat, her tail; her appearance in general. Where did you find her?"

"Among the burning ruins of a human machine. Fortunately, the rainstorm put out the fire…"

The shattering rain pelted down on the surface of whatever stood above protecting me from it and the booming thunders. I didn't pick up on those harsh noises and the heavy dampness of the air until the first voice referred to the storm.

"Poor thing!" a female voice chimed in behind the two male ones. "She must have no idea about what has happened!"

I mustered the strength to open an eye in a blink and caught a glance of big, strange-looking cats all around me. They fitted the description Mom had made of _lions_ in one of her prior-to-sleep stories. Lions? That meant I wound up farther from home than I'd thought. Way farther!

"She blinked!" gasped a second female voice pertaining to a tan, blue-eyed lioness.

The first lioness who had spoken sounded startled. "Huh? Really?"

She, who had sharp, _sort_ of saffron-amber eyes, nudged me with her muzzle. Seeing as I wouldn't budge, she stepped back, sighing in disappointment.

"Sarafina," she started, "I'm terribly sorry if this is an inconvenience, but this cub will need someone to tend to her while she's…"

"Say no more, Sarabi," interrupted the tan lioness. "I'll be glad to look after her. Besides, Nala really needs a friend; I'm afraid she's shutting herself away and becoming awfully lonely."

_Nala? Who's Nala?_

The patter of paws spreading away in different directions slowed down the rhythm of my beating heart. Foolishly believing the danger had passed, I succumbed to a pleasant sleep. It lasted very little, though, as Sarafina wrapped her mouth around my scruff and picked me up. Ready to scream, partly in pain but mostly because of the shock, both my mouth and eyes burst wide open. I shut them abruptly after realizing she was just carrying me to another spot. Until now, I hadn't noticed we were in a cave.

A bolt of lightning flashed and rang somewhere far away as she laid me down. Its faded echo whooshed into my ears and died upon bumping against my eardrums. Once again, I entered a brief state of peace, this time interrupted by the clatter of anxious little paws sprinting towards me. Whoever was approaching would run me over.

Luckily, the sound vanished into thin air less than an inch from where I lay.

"Hi, mom!" called a little girl about my age, judging from the tone of her voice. "Who… _What _is that?" she inquired innocently, excited and amused, sniffing my back as if trying to compare my scent to something familiar to her.

The mother beamed and giggled softly. "Darling, it's a _she_… not a thing. I think she's a leopard cub."

I could picture the cub's eyes glittering like melting ice under the sun. "What's her name?"

"We don't know that yet; she hasn't woken up since we found her."

"Where _did_ you find her?"

"I'll explain tomorrow, dear," whispered the tan lioness in intermittent yawning sighs. "Now you should sleep; you must be exhausted after playing outside all day."

A sad and in a way awkward silence fell between mother and daughter. Obviously, the first had said something she shouldn't have. Quiet sniffles from the second broke the stillness. Sarafina hushed them tenderly and, as I unshielded my left eye for two seconds, nuzzled her cub affectionately.

Wow! The girl was a younger version of her mother; she bore the same light-colored fur and enviable sapphire eyes. The tears she'd shed dried up and her eyes suddenly shimmered with excitement instead of sorrow as they swerved in my direction.

"She's awake!" she sang out loud, waking almost the whole pride up. All heads in the den swung toward me and froze.

_Nooo!_ I slammed my eyes shut at the speed of light and went back to pretending I was still asleep. Apparently, nobody gave much importance to the cub's call.

"Oh come on!" she whined, walking closer and nudging me with her paw. "Why are you faking?"

"Nala, give her a break!" ordered the tan lioness, raising her voice. "She's been through a lot. Just let her have some sleep."

"Okaaay," sighed the daughter, frustrated.

Sarafina's body flopped onto the stony ground close to me, leaving a narrow gap between us that Nala filled with difficulty almost instantly afterwards. Not much time passed before snores of different pitches mingled harmonically in a windy, mind-numbing melody. Completely sure that all the lions were fast asleep, I allowed my prickly eyes to take a look around. _Great! _The coast clear, I prepared to rise as quiet as possible and slink out of the cave.

I was getting up, holding my breath so as not to make the faintest sound, when something forced me down, although not physically. My body collapsed at the sight of wide open amber eyes fixed upon me. They belonged to a golden cub snuggled up to Sarabi and the owner of the first voice I'd heard. What was his name again? The lionesses had mentioned it more than once. Sim-_something_. Whatever. Did it really matter? I was _so_ busted!

I decided to shoot a friendly grin at him, but all that came out was a scary and stupid grimace. However, he didn't answer back. Those eyes were lost in something else. _Somebody_ else. They looked pretty much like Mom and Dad used to look at each other. I sorted out to rest until he drifted off. How long could it take? Ten, fifteen minutes, tops. Besides, a short sleep would suit me quite well…

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**So what did you think? Like it? Not? Remember, this story depends on reviews. SO REVIEW! xDDDDD**

**I wanted to use Russian names for my original characters, but I didn't like the ones I ran into. I don't know, they just didn't seem like "cubby" names. So I chose Finnish names. There are no snow leopards in Finland, but it's still pretty cold there.**

**I know the quote at the top is not from the song this story's inspired on. I just liked it and decided to put it up there. **

**I'll try to post a new chapter before Christmas, but first I have to finish off Vampire Heart's Chapter 9.**


	2. Shadows and Hearts

Chapter 2: Shadows and Hearts

Streaking yellow light slanted through the den entrance, bringing in a brightness that pulled every soul inside from its dreams. Snippets of soft murmurs blew into my ears and whisked me away from the Snowlands. Oh, shoot! I'd overslept!

Preparing to make a run for the cave's mouth, I opened my eyes carefully and crouched slightly. It took at least five seconds for the sleepy blur to fade away for good. A pair of glinting sapphire eyes, almost pressed to my muzzle, welcomed me startlingly. The owner of those eyes, a tan she-cub, jumped back brusquely, uttering a sharp shriek as I hopped to my paws just as roughly but remaining silent. Mom had told me not to ever let an enemy know when I was afraid. We both staggered, but only I fell. My body hadn't woken up completely yet, I guessed.

"You're up!" she exclaimed, beaming. "Are you a leopard? You have those black spots but your fur is kinda…"

_Whitish gray_. _And the black "spots" are called rosettes, by the way._

As she approached with suppressed excitement, everything but instincts vanished from my mind. I rose quickly, backing away with utmost caution. Thousands of gleaming eyes encircling me kept track of my every move. The cub's mother lay slumbering right behind me. One of her deep, warm breaths shot a warning to my back, but didn't stop me from tripping. I couldn't remember her name, or any names at all for that matter.

Her rest disturbed by my weight, the lioness whispered a growl-like grunt and turned her head back to look at me. My heart exploded with fear as tears welled up in my eyes. Her stern glare loosened until a comforting smile, much like the ones Mom would throw at me whenever I cried, drew upon her face.

"Oh, you're up," she gasped, remarking what her daughter had already made clear. She gently pushed me back to my paws with her muzzle and got up once my weight no longer hindered her movements. "My name is Sarafina. What's yours, honey?"

"T-Tarja," I answered submissively.

"Tarja," she repeated. "That's a beautiful name. You're not from around here, are you?"

I simply shook my head, lowering my eyes, memories of home flashing before them. Upon shyly redirecting my gaze toward the lioness, I caught sight of two other adult figures next to her. The female was the one who was talking to Sarafina the night before. The male must've been the lion which had run into me in the fire; at least, he bore the same physical features. For some reason, a reassuring feeling of safety replaced the fear that had my heart pumping so fast.

"I am King Mufasa," explained the red-maned lion, stepping forward and then pointing at his mate with his eyes, "and this is my wife, Sarabi."

The Queen nodded and smiled. "Can you remember anything about yesterday, dear?"

"A bit," I muttered sobbingly, trying hard to clear the overcast in my head. "I… uh… there was a fire."

I could've told them about the man with the gun, but it didn't seem like such an important detail now. The mates shared a look of preoccupation that made the hairs on my scruff stand on end.

Impatiently, I broke the silence. "Do you know what happened?"

"We'll talk about it later," said Sarabi in a soothing tone. "Now, we want you to relax. You could play with Nala!"

"Yes!" the she-cub behind me chipped in. She started tugging at my tail, for which the words that followed came out rather muffled. "Let's go out and play!"

Outside, the spectacular view _sparkled_ before us. Large herds of different, yummy-looking animals moved along the never-ending savannah. The sun, still in the center of the cloudless sky, radiated its sweet light over the world, distributing its tickly warmth among all the living things. I enjoyed it all for a very short time, though; the rain of yellow rays quickly turned from comforting to scalding. It was the most sweltering day I'd ever had!

Nala fixed her sapphire eyes on me, her pupils contracting in the sunlight. "So what do you want to do?"

"I'm thirsty," I groaned, unaware that my dry tongue dangled from my mouth.

The tan cub snickered at the sight of my melting face, then looked away and started for a path sloped downward that led to the grassy flatlands. I trailed behind her, the heat wearing me out a hair at a time. She carried on so happily and at such a sprightly pace that the sun appeared to have not the slightest effect on her.

Her eyes were a really interesting thing to look at. Not only did they combine astonishingly with the sky above, but they also shined with a bright, white light, as if fragments of her soul escaped through them constantly. They glittered like mine did when I experienced my first snowfall or savored my first meat meal (a wild sheep, I could recall). _Or the last time I'd heard Dad say "I love you."_

I could bet this was Nala's _first time_ for something. I just didn't know what.

"So, Tarja," she giggled, looking back over her shoulder but not waiting for me to catch up, "that's a funny name."

"Why?"

She stared at me as though the answer was obvious. "Because it's weird! Nobody around here is called _Tarja._"

"Well, nobody around where _I_ come from is called _Nala."_

The cub chuckled and proceeded forward. Despite the fact that we belonged to worlds apart, she honestly didn't mind my being a snow leopardess. The prejudices toward members of other species that parents almost always imprint in the dregs of their children's heads hadn't corrupted her. As a matter of fact, this particular pride of lions felt a heck of a lot more welcoming than most of my relatives' families.

Little time went by before Nala came to a sudden halt. Her diamond irises dissolved behind her widening raven-black pupils as she sped away without warning.

Her disappearance put my heart beating to the rhythm of the pulsating heat. My eyes wandered about in a mad frenzy until the cub let out a croak of excitement, revealing her position.

"Water hole, ho!" she yelled cheerfully, beckoning me over to her side.

Lauri would do that too. _Mountain, ho! Prey, ho! Little sis glaring and ready to strike if I don't quit it, ho!_ A complete nuisance. Nala, however, sounded ten times cooler than my brother. Silly still, but not so much.

The stroll went on for about two more minutes or so before we reached our final destination. I didn't bother to admire the sparkling, almost crystal-clear water, just stooped and gulped hastily. My paws steamed and hissed in painful relief upon coming into contact with it, as does a red-hot metal under the same circumstances. Nala witnessed this desperate outburst, both bewildered and amused.

"Wow, you _were _thirsty!" she exclaimed at last.

"Yeah," I mumbled in bubbles as more of the refreshing liquid flowed into my mouth and brought me back to life.

My dry insides re-hydrated, I waded my way deeper into the water hole until my legs could no longer touch the loamy bottom. My head, the only part of me Nala could see and fearfully had her attention focused on, should any unfortunate events unfold, dived and emerged in a flash.

I shook my head, wallowing in the liberating coldness, as Nala's calm expression shattered with concern.

"Whooo!"

"What are you doing? You could drown!"

Her warning swept into one of my ears and slipped out through the other, barely scraping my thoughts. "This is great!"

While she watched worriedly as I swam, three cubs abandoned their shady shelter beneath a magnificent tree which stood nearby and strode down to the water hole. Many others, among them the golden male with brown eyes from the night before, stayed behind, wrapped in the sweet, chilly shadows that reposed under the outward spreading web of boughs, branches, and withered leaves.

"Hey, freaks," called the one in the middle, "you're spoiling the view."

Nala turned and glanced wearily over to the brownish she-cub with green eyes which had provoked her, as if she always had to put up with her. The sharp, white teeth of the two boys to her sides glowed with an unnaturally clean light in their grinning muzzles. At first, I convinced myself that my ears hadn't heard correctly because of the water. Why would anybody treat us like that without even knowing us? Well, I couldn't speak for Nala, but it _was_ my first day here.

Taken aback, the tan cub lowered her eyes to the ground. She sniffled for a moment, a malevolent smile stretching across her oppressor's face. Then, much to everybody's surprise, she lifted her head up and glared at her with rage.

"Sauda, don't you have something better to do," she growled, in a rasping, angry tone I'd never thought anyone capable of using, "like, I don't know, flirting lamely with a boy?"

The girl stared back in shock and disbelief, as though nobody had answered to her insults like that before. "What did you just say?"

"N-nothing," stuttered Nala, her momentary fit of courage deflating. "I… I'm sorry."

"Yes," groaned Sauda, gritting her teeth, "you _will_ be sorry."

Immediately, she lunged at Sarafina's daughter, shoving her violently into the water. The loud splash roused the little ones from their pleasant rest in the shade. With ears perked, they made their way to where the action was centered, settling behind the three bullies, who began rolling on the grass laughing, apparently oblivious to their victim's gurgling cries for help.

"She's drowning! Somebody's got to help her!" shrieked one of the she-cubs, confronting the one who had started it all.

"Eshe, can't you see she's just faking?" raved Sauda, greeting her with a resentful scowl.

"She's not! She can't swim, you know that!"

As the verbal bout took its course, I tried to aid the dying cub, although sure that I wouldn't reach her in time. Her muzzle was the last part of her to disappear under the surface. Shortly after the little bubbles of accelerated exhalations ceased to burst upon reaching the border between water and air, a flash of gold whizzed past the cluster of lions and plunged in.

The pond appeared to have claimed its soul too, but that fear was dispelled when a brownish-gold cub forced his way out and gulped for oxygen. Holding Nala close to him by the scruff, he drove as fast as he could to the shore, his four limbs flailing underwater for propulsion. Once out, he laid her down gently and spoke to her lightly, urging her to open her eyes.

"Is she gonna be alright?" I asked, joining the group that had gathered around her. A faint "_you're all a bunch of losers,"_ floated into my ears as Sauda turned to leave with her friends.

Only four lion cubs had stayed. From their disorderly, whispered conversation, I managed to catch all their names. Eshe, Uzima, Chumvi, and Simba. That was the name! _Simba. _The Prince. The reason I couldn't leave the cave yesterday.

Since my question was completely ignored, I uttered it again. Chumvi, a cub with eyes like Simba's but whose fur was the color of mud, glowered at me with mingled weariness and fear.

"Can you shut up? We're figuring out what to do."

Before I could say anything, Nala broke into a series of coughing fits and our focus turned to her.

"Nala, you okay?" asked Simba concernedly once her hacking seizure winked out, his muzzle so close to hers that they breathed into each other without taking notice.

The tan cub remained mute and motionless. Tears prickled our eyes upon receiving no answer. Was she really breathing?

"Nala," whimpered Simba, nudging her with his paw, "come on."

Uzima's glare of worry trembled into a facial expression that bordered weeping. "Is she…?"

Fortunately, she was proved wrong when a harsh, watery cough interrupted her. Simba backed off as the warm water in Nala's lungs shot into his mouth, which was slightly ajar.

After grunting and spitting it out, he helped the struggling cub to her paws. She looked him in the eyes gratefully and with a vermillion hint of quizzical embarrassment in her cheeks. Then, tears clumped under her lids brawled their way out, highlighting the blue of her irises before the Prince.

"Leave me alone!" she sobbed, taking off for Pride Rock so fast that none of us could stop her.

The cubs shared a tired glance, as if thinking _"it's always the same stupid crud."_ They paid no heed whatsoever to my presence and headed indifferently back to their shady spot. The sun above burned harder now than when I'd first set off for this place with Nala. I could either plunge back into the cool water alone or join the gang under the tree.

Opting for the latter, I approached them and, for a moment, mistook the confusion in their stares for rejection.

"Wait! You don't have to go," called Chumvi, kindly motioning me to a gap between him and Eshe before I turned to leave. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier," he added, fixing his eyes on the soil.

"Don't be… I mean, you were all nervous and worried about her. But why did she run off like that?"

Eshe was the one to begin the long explanation, but Chumvi and Uzima cut her off frequently to add side information. The golden cub, on the other hand, seemed to have shut himself away from the rest of the world. His honey eyes faced the water hole, but they weren't looking at it; they had something different, something much brighter and beautiful, in front of them, and its fantastic light reflected from those lost orbs as if from round mirrors.

In the end, I understood why Nala had behaved so cheerily this morning. She always coped with non-stop bullying by the other cubs (this group, of course, excluded itself proudly from that category); none of the girls and boys her age talked to her; whenever she was offered actual help, she would decline it, thinking that deep inside everybody meant harm. Her everyday life narrowed down to two inextricably linked factors: fear and humiliation. Living in both, according to Eshe, had taught her how to be tough and strong, although she'd never play the _card of rage_ until the enemy surrounded her and blocked all the exits, like it had done today (if the argument had heated up a bit more and Sauda hadn't pushed her into the pond, she would certainly have defended herself). I realized now that, indeed, I was her _first time _for something: her _first time _for a friend.

Sometime later, the subject of Nala faded away pretty much the same way it was brought up, except there was more than one question involved and all of them, badly enough, required an answer from me. What was my name? Where did I come from? Why did I look like I did? Where was my family now? And a gazillion others. Luckily, I got to learn a lot from them too.

Thus, entertained with many sets of often silly queries, we absently watched the day turn into night. The weak afternoon sun sank languidly into its earthly bed, afraid of the mysterious pallor of the moon and the stars. A purplish twilight sky, growing darker with the tick of every second, loomed over the Pridelands, and it was across it that a roared call echoed not far from Pride Rock. The Prince perked his ears, recognizing and following the sound of his mother's voice with the rest of us straggling along behind him.

I had survived my first day.

Once wrapped in the safety of the cave, the smell of dinner whetted my appetite. The little ones' stomachs rumbled like thunder and their tongues dripped saliva over the stony ground as they stared keenly at the two huge buffalos the lionesses had hunted. The bodies ripped and torn, each lion dug into its chunk of meat as if it were its final meal.

The cubs ate faster but, since most of them wanted to repeat, finished last. The adults, having killed their hunger, retired to sleep in a deeper part of the den. They never really consolidated slumber successfully until their children joined them, but the younglings didn't know that, and nor did I. At least, not before _the happening_.

Nala, the only one who hadn't eaten yet, was struggling among the multitude for a piece. When she finally grabbed hold of one, though, Sauda, not entirely satisfied with what she'd already accomplished, decided she just _had_ to ruin the night for the _freak_. She slunk toward the tan cub and stopped at the perfect distance to play her prank. She had come very close, but her victim was too busy pleasing her stomach to be bothered by her figure. Then, when Nala was least expecting it, she stirred the dust on the ground with a blow and a gray cloud covered the food.

Bummed out and irritated, Sarafina's daughter glowered murderously at her sworn enemy before fetching another chunk. However, she found nothing but skin and bones among the carcasses.

"Why did you do it?" she inquired, trembling toward tears.

Just as the bully and most of the cubs staggered on the verge of laughter, Sauda's mother strode to her daughter from one of the corners.

"Sauda, it's enough!" she scolded her, lifting her up roughly by the scruff, looking down on Nala apologetically, and returning to the dingy depths of the den.

The she-cub's silvery squeaks of complaint vibrated faintly through the darkness and hushed in vanishing echoes. "But mom, it was _her_ fault!"

Nala glanced back over to the mangled remains of what once had been two healthy buffalos and panted mellow sniffles which quickly wavered into loud, bitter cries. The cubs' desire to laugh drowned in the sour tears that rolled down her cheeks.

Her anger and sorrow drained, she wiped the tears off her face with a paw and prepared to go to sleep next to her mother.

Suddenly, the wind wailed two words into her ears, which were pinned to her head. They had been spoken by someone she knew but never talked to out of shyness and fear of rejection.

"Nala, wait!"

The tan cub veered back to make sure the hunger wasn't just messing with her sanity. But there was the Prince, approaching her with a big, juicy chunk of meat in his mouth. He dropped it a few inches from where she sat and nudged it even closer with his muzzle.

"I was wondering… if you'd like some of my share," he muttered timidly, unable to restrain a widening, toothy grin. "It's... it's too big for me."

She looked at the bloodstain his muzzle had caught and giggled softly as she nodded thankfully. Both cubs bent their heads to tear a piece of flesh from the chunk and then lifted them up to chew more comfortably, a smile flickering across their faces when making eye contact.

I noticed something odd in the way they shot quick stares at each other. Simba's eyes glimmered like they had done earlier today, veiled not in light, but in a crystalline shadow. So did Nala's. True. The first were honey-amber and the second sky-blue. Nevertheless, I could tell the _thing _beaming from them had the same _pure_ nature; it budded from their hearts. A mutual _crush_. The shadow of love.

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**So... how am I doing so far? Please keep reviewing! :)**

**My apologies to all VH readers; I'm currently blocked with that story and it's awfully annoying. However, I promise to post something very soon. I'm almost over with ch. 9, I just have to find the right words to bring it to a decent end. **

**Oh, I almost forgot: all VH readers may have noticed a tiny link to the VH storyline. What was it? :O**

**Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. All SNL fic writers, I'm in desperate need of your updates! Your stories are my nepenthe!**

**Merry Christmas! :DDDD**


	3. A Fortunate Twist of Fate

Chapter 3: A Fortunate Twist of Fate

That night, tomorrow seemed too far away for Simba and Nala. Blissfully ignoring their surroundings, they chatted until their eyes could no longer remain open. Their parents and other lionesses lying comfortably in the darkness snickered silently at the sight of the two cubs sharing a meal. Although most of their playmates had gone to sleep, some had stayed to study the extraterrestrial phenomenon manifesting itself before them more closely. A boy and a girl spending some time together, apparently, was something very much out of the ordinary.

I didn't get why everybody was paying so much heed to them. They talked about the stupidest and most obvious subjects! Personally, I thought of their conversation as an improvement on Mom's lullabies. And boy, were hers effective!

Sleep crept slowly into me as their words became nothing but fading remnants of a world I didn't belong to and kindly showed my tired soul to the frozen gates of my beloved home. There, snow covered the ground and bled from the grayest clouds stuck in the sky. Chilly gusts of wind blew away the annoying noises of reality, enwrapping me in a surreal, wintry tranquility. Mom, Lauri, and Valo exited one of the caves that pierced the rough mountains to welcome me back. There was someone else with them: a fourth entity. _Dad?_

"Daddy!"

Anxiously, I ran toward him and pounced on him playfully.

"Looks like somebody's in a very good mood," he chuckled, deftly dodging my attack. "So how are you doing, my little snowflake?"

_Snowflake_. Not sweetie. Not darling. It was the exclusive term of endearment that Dad would always use on me.

I looked up at him and admired the blueness of my eyes reflected in his. "I missed you so much! Don't ever leave again!"

"I missed you too," he said, bending his head to cuddle me. "I love you more than anything in the world. You know that, don't you?"

Giggling, I nodded before he continued. "We'll be together again someday, okay? But not yet."

"'Kay," I muttered, lowering my gaze in mild disappointment. "When?"

"Don't worry about that," he replied as my mother's head sought support on his shoulder. "Now, go and play with your brothers."

A wild grin drew upon my face when I turned around to chase Lauri and Valo, who'd had the boldness to play _Tag _without me. I didn't look back at my parents, but I was sure they were sitting a few feet behind me, watching over us. _Like they would always do… _

"Tarja, Tarja… TARJA!"

Nala's cries stormed into my ears just as I was about to pin Valo. And he was _unpinnable_! I'd probably _never_ get a chance to catch him again.

My startled heart drummed within my ribcage and my eyes popped open. "Why did you wake me up?"

I felt like I'd slept only for a couple of minutes. Upon staring out through the cave's entrance, I realized the night was slowly and hopelessly burning to death in the fire of the rising sun, whose bright rim had already peeped over the horizon. Quickly, golden light broke into the den, dimly illuminating its musty stomach. The pride's snores of deep slumber bounced off the rocky walls and dispersed through the empty space like mist. All of the lions looked profoundly lost in the sweet and often forbidden fantasies conjured by the dustiest corners of their minds. All of them, except _her_.

"I have to tell you something," whispered the tan cub, her glinting blue eyes petrified before my figure. "But it's a secret, and you have to promise not to tell _anybody_."

"Wow, what is it?" I asked excitedly, jumping to my paws. I loved it when somebody shared a secret with me; not only did it mean that the one confiding it to you considered you a loyal friend, but there was also some sort of undeniable fun in knowing a fact that others ignored.

"Well?" I insisted after realizing, by her constipated stare, that she was hesitating.

"Not so loud!" she scolded me, raising the tone of her voice but immediately lowering it so as not to disturb the sleeping lions. "I'll tell you somewhere else."

Together, we headed outside with cautious steps, sitting down on the edge that overlooked the kingdom. Now, the sun had fully risen from its tomb and shone with rage upon us. The night, the main victim of its killing light, had left not one token of its obscure beauty in the blue morning sky. The wildlife's deep groans, the violent sounds of everyday strife for survival, polluted the air rapidly and narrowed Nala's time to speak.

A series of prolonged yawns coming from inside the cave forced the tan cub to spit her secret out at once. "I… I think I have a _little_… _crush_… on one of the boys."

"Oh," I sighed, my eagerness throttled by that not entirely unexpected confession. "Simba, right?"

Her eyes widened in surprise. "H-how did you know?"

"I bet everybody knows," I replied, and embarrassment painted Nala's cheeks crimson.

"What… what do you mean?" she inquired, in a futile attempt to convey cluelessness.

"You were so busy staring at each other all night that you didn't realize you were talking about really stupid stuff."

"We weren't talking about anything stupid!" protested Nala, frowning.

"Oh, yeah? What about all your questions?"

"Oh, please, name _one _stupid question," she demanded defiantly.

I pondered over it. So many lame conversation topics had been brought up that I really didn't need much time to remember one of the worst. "Seriously, _his favorite fruit_? You're lions; you don't eat fruits!"

She giggled, taking her thoughts back to the night before. "His favorite fruit is apricot; he thinks the name is funny… you know, for a fruit."

A sepulchral silence fell between us after she mentioned this pointlessly. The she-cub wallowed in the fresh memories the Prince had blessed her with, veering her head toward the splendid landscape. Her eyes, stained with melancholy bemusement, rested upon a clump of brownish, four-legged dots marching along the savannah in search of taller grasses to feed upon. Her mind, though, had journeyed into her perfect, little world, where fate was nice to her and happy endings existed. The haven she had locked herself in must have been very beautiful indeed; only beautiful things could carve such smiles as the one that adorned her face in a soul as miserable as hers.

Not long afterwards, her mother's voice swept in and took away her fantasies. A sigh of mingled frustration and wryness escaped Nala's mouth as she walked back into the den.

Sarafina placed her daughter between her paws and groomed her gently. Later, she did the same with me, although my thick fur proved much harder to clean. The oddly refreshing strokes of her tongue forced a purr of pleasure out of my mouth. The tan cub sat down in front of me and shot an uneasy glare at her mother, cuing her to make haste.

What was the hurry? Maybe she wanted me to play with her outside. Whatever the game, exploring the water hole would surely be out of the question after yesterday's occurrences.

All the little ones rushed to the water hole once the adults gave them permission. Zazu, a very annoying blue hornbill who was the King's majordomo, had been put in charge of looking after the eager bunch and led the way from above. Nala and I trailed along behind them, hoping to sneak away before drawing any of the bullies' focus toward us, especially Sauda's. This morning, the green-eyed cub exhaled hellfire through her nostrils, awaiting the perfect moment to turn around and tackle the girl who had gotten her punished.

The thick hair on my paws would help me walk on top of the deep snow, but in the boiling air of the savannah and under its scorching sun, it only slowed me down. The group far ahead, Nala nudged me, bringing to my attention a small cluster of rocks situated to one side of the path. We slunk quietly toward it until our steps faded out of earshot, and then sprinted, as if our very lives depended on it.

My feet melted away progressively and left rancid traces of sweat behind, but the sense of adventure in the whole situation maintained some of the energy I'd gathered from the buffalo meal securely frozen within my body.

The place bore no grass, only rocks which cast tenuous shadows on the ground. We both flopped beneath one of them, utterly exhausted. The weak darkness replenished my body with some of the strength the sun had burned away.

"This is my hideout," she began. "I always come here when I need a little peace."

The cool, black masses reposing underneath us thickened as the sun slid further to the west. The lack of sound and the venomous, hot air worked their way into my weary eyes, tenderly lulling me asleep. I even saw Dad, trapped within the nebulous walls of a dream I could not enter due to a shrill wake-up call.

"Hey!" shrieked Nala, springing to her paws. "You still haven't promised!"

"Promised what?"

The tan cub rolled her eyes. "My secret, remember? You have to promise me you won't tell anybody."

"Okay," I sighed, lifting myself up, "I promise not to tell anybody that you _love_ the Prince."

This time, her face displayed a deformed mixture of consternation, dread, and shock. "Love?" she repeated, almost panting. "I never said I _loved _him!"

"You never said you _didn't_," I countered, her madder-stained cheeks eliciting a smirk from the naughtiest part of my being.

"You won't tell anyone, will you?" she queried timorously, tears building up under her lids.

She looked completely mad: madly in love. If I didn't calm her down, her heart would blow up within her. "I already told you I won't."

Her brows wrinkled in mistrust. "_Cross-tail_ swear?"

I pulled a pensive stare, just to freak her out a little, before agreeing. Then, I yielded to her petition with a hearty smile. Our tails entwined for a brief lapse and sealed the vow, only to split apart startlingly at the rapturous screams of two cubs which were playing nearby.

"Who is it?" I asked to Nala, who immediately poked her head out of the stony fortress to catch a glimpse of the invaders.

"It's Chumvi… and Simba," she whispered, a hint of sudden timidity in her voice. "They're pouncing."

The two males ran after each other in a crazy fashion. The one would chase the other until catching him. When they reached that point, the roles of cat and mouse would be swapped.

Their loud cries of ecstasy panged into Nala's ears, rendering the pain of restraint unbearable.

"I wanna play too," she lamented.

Her glum blue eyes fell upon me, seeking approval. "Then go."

"You have to come with me," she added, augmenting the intensity of the sadness in her countenance to make her persuasion powers stronger. After all, she didn't turn out as innocent as I had suspected.

"Oh, no," I replied, "I'm okay right here."

A toothy grin shone between her cheeks. "Please, please, please, please, pleeeeeeease?"

My final answer came out as a weary nod. Her eyes glittered thankfully, but her excitement went out slowly as we approached the duo. Upon listening to the rustling of the grass we trampled, the two playmates rolled to their paws and aimed curious glowers at us with their heads tilted to one side.

A warm terror tore into Nala's deadened heart and made each contraction hurt as if a burning spear had pierced through its soft tissue. The beats resonated at a painfully high volume.

"What do we do?" she inquired in desperate mumbles, skidding to a halt a fair distance from where the two young males had sat down on their haunches.

"How about a 'hi'?"

"Hi!" she hollered nervously, waving a trembling paw at the Prince and his best friend. Two amicable smiles gleamed in our direction under the suffocating daylight.

Sarafina's daughter took this as a good sign and beamed.

"You're a genius," she uttered quietly, veering her head toward me but quickly repositioning it so that her light-blue eyes would face the wondering boys.

Suddenly, she relapsed into her fit of shyness. "Okay, what now?"

"I don't know," I answered laconically. "My older brother would always compliment any snow leopardesses his age whenever we stumbled across other families in the mountains."

"I guess I can say something nice to him," she muttered, looking down and scanning the dry earth for an answer. "How about I tell him he has a cool mane… I mean, a cool _pre-mane_?"

"Maybe…"

"You're right," she interrupted abruptly. "His hair's too little; he's gonna think I'm making fun of him."

With ears perked, the two cubs kept their curious eyes fixed on us, flummoxed by our unceasing gossiping. After standing idly for a while and whispering something into his brown-furred pal's ear, Simba decided to break the ice and strode forward, his chest bloated with the noble air of royalty.

He came to a stop much too close for Nala's comfort. "Hi, Nala! Hey, Tarja!"

"Hi!" we both blurted out, although the tan cub's shrill and anxious voice eclipsed mine.

His visage depicted confusion: one that Sarafina's daughter found jolly cute. "You alright?" he proceeded to ask, raising an eyebrow at my companion's undecipherable facial expression.

"What? Oh… uh… I," she faltered, "I was just thinking you have a neat… tail… tuft."

For a moment, the Prince's amber orbs filled with bafflement. He glimpsed back over his shoulder, then down, hitching his gaze to his own tail. Chumvi, who had sorted out to follow his friend after mulling over it for a couple of minutes, stepped into earshot just in time to grasp the girl's comment. He refrained from laughing uproariously, but his unsubtly crumpled face disclosed his mischievous desire to do so.

"Thanks, I guess," mumbled the future king, flushing imperceptibly at the sight of his sweet flatterer's look of embarrassment. "Hey, would you two like to come to the waterhole with us?"

"Yes!" we both replied cheerily.

The heat was literally frying me; I thought the impact of this environment's temperature on me wouldn't be as tremendous as it had been the first day now that I had gotten a little bit more accustomed to the change of setting, but I was obviously far from right.

Nala's choice came out as quite a surprise, though. A moment ago, she wished to hear not one word about the water hole. Now, she'd said _"yes!"_ with such an unrivaled passion that it seemed as though going to that refreshing piece of heaven had always been her most longed-for goal in life. Maybe, being with Simba made it all worth it, even if it meant clashing with Sauda.

On our way to where the rest of the cubs were sipping water from the edge, Chumvi found it impossible to hold the laughter trapped within his mouth. Halfway from our destination, he burst out guffawing.

"Who's got a _neat tuft_?" he chanted annoyingly, jumping around the golden cub as many times as necessary to grind his patience.

Ashamed, Nala sunk her head close to the ground, almost drilling into the soil with her muzzle. The Prince's color rose as Chumvi grabbed hold of his tail and tugged at it playfully. His eyes quit wandering about aimlessly to fall dreadfully upon the irritating ball of auburn fur he referred to as a friend.

"Stop it!" he ordered sharply, smacking him in the head with his paw.

The obnoxious teaser let out a loud howl of deserved pain and bolted off, pursued by a pair of blazing honey eyes. Their joyous screams dissolved into the stifling air as the two of them trotted friskily to the edge of the pond and stooped to quench their thirst.

The tan cub chose a spot next to her _heartthrob_ and slurped up the water with a happy telltale smile. Simba, astonishingly enough, took no notice of it. Clearly, he was much less clever than I gave him credit for. Or maybe he was distracted! Yeah. That had to be it; at times, he would just keep his proud eyes nailed to his tail, as if he were psychically thanking it for being _neat_ enough for a girl.

It was amazing how a mere exchange of words could turn whole lives around. Hemmed in by a terrible shyness, Nala had never found the gumption to talk to the Prince, but now it all had changed. Without knowing it, she'd hoisted the scaffoldings for something that would someday be more than a friendship. With a shrill '_hi!'_ and a silly compliment, she'd introduced herself to the abstract realm of love, a mystery of both sugar and salt.

Through the days and months following her birth, loneliness had become her barren home. She'd lived a very petty life, nuzzled by sorrow and cradled in hopelessness. Fate had always treated her cruelly. Now, she felt she could let someone else into her troubled world: someone to share her black roses with. That special someone, who was sitting right next to her, had cast away her fear of a bleak destiny. However, she had yet to learn that the labyrinthine corridors of love and fate sometimes led to the same place.

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**Here you go! Chapter 3. Thanks to all the ones who have reviewed this story up to now! I love reviews! Keep them coming! :DDDDDDD**

**I have some rather bad news, though. At the risk of sounding banal, life sucks, doesn't it? My medicine classes, unfortunately, begin on the first days of February, and the schedule is a modern system of slavery. RIP, Freedom DDDD: **

**I won't be able to update very often, but I encourage you to keep reading this story; I think you're really going to enjoy the plot I have in mind.**

**I'm going to try and upload ch.4 before classes begin. **


	4. The Snowlands

Chapter 4: The Snowlands

By midday, sunlight raged down over the savannah so intensely that all the water I'd had (roughly a liter) slipped from my body in copious drops of sweat which sizzled upon clashing with the arid earth. Rather than rustling, the withered grass and shrubs crackled in the summer breeze, which was doing little to relieve the stifling atmosphere. The young lions, though, did not seem disturbed by the heat; they ran about and pounced and yelled happily, with no restraint whatsoever. When thirst hung on their throats, they would simply stand on the edge of the sparkling water hole and drown it with a mouthful of the refreshing, bubbly liquid.

Nala and Simba engaged in a game much like the one the latter had played with his best friend before heading for this place, although the score was not as balanced as it'd been then. The pursuit _almost_ always (to give Simba some credit for his pointless efforts) culminated with her on top of the golden cub. Whenever the tan cub nailed him down, the Prince would grumble under his breath, pushing the she-cub off of him, and attempt a successful counterattack only to miss her. Occasionally, he managed to skim her fur with a stretch of his paw, but that was as far as he would get. Her skill clearly outmatched his. She would probably grow up to be an extremely talented huntress.

Although all of the little ones' eyes glimmered anxiously under the diurnal star's infernal resplendence, the two _lovebirds'_ blazed wildly and stood out from the crowd.

Just as I was going to join them, a bitter cubbish voice petrified me.

"They look _cute_, don't they?"

I glanced back over my shoulder to stumble on Sauda, whose chest was bloated with conceit. Her green orbs, ravenous for revenge, fell upon me after perusing the two playmates she'd referred to scornfully. Her tail twitched back and forth in a rather maniacal and evil fashion, dancing like a snake to the beat of her envious heart.

"I thought leopards could talk," she hissed, annoyed by my silence.

Her vexed stare sent numbing shivers down my spine. She stepped closer and smirked malevolently as I cowered back slightly. Her tail lashed the soil repeatedly, lifting a weak fog of dust. Looking away, I tried to pay as little heed as possible to the bully's intimidations. I could feel that sharp glare of hers stabbing into me like a deadly blade.

The silence between us ended up wearing out the vengeful she-cub's patience. A shriek of pain burst out of my mouth as a sudden, sharp sting throbbed in my left flank, close to my belly. Instinctively, I sprang violently from Sauda, who let out a pleased cackle. The unsheathed claws in her right paw had caught tiny bloodstains.

"See?" she laughed snidely. "You _do _have a voice."

I brought forth the toughest snarl I could contrive, but all that came out was a pained groan. In response, she issued a daunting roar much too fierce for someone her age, which drew all attention toward us. My heart shrank as she pressed her paws against the ground and lifted her rump, preparing to attack. She curled her lips into an ill grin, but erased it quickly when another girl planted herself between us. Her jade-green eyes scanned the hindrance disdainfully and then swirled about, noticing that all the cubs were surrounding her, eying her curiously. Seeing as her two loathsome cronies weren't here to provide aid, she reassumed an idle stance, unwilling to start a losing fight.

"You okay?" inquired my protector, glimpsing back. A feeble smile on her part welcomed my shy nod.

"Butt out, you _tan_ freak!" growled Sauda, baring her teeth menacingly. "This is between the weirdo leopard and me!"

Nala would've attempted to calm the seething contender down under different circumstances. Not now. Any insults regarding her fur color roiled her like nothing else in the whole wide world. The additional fact that her sworn enemy had spoken them only fanned the flames.

"Why do you always have to bother us? Huh?" she asked defiantly, surprising the bully.

Simba, who'd hidden behind a bush to get rid of the water he'd gulped up hastily at the waterhole a split second before the brawl's ignition, returned to find the girl he was playing with confronting one of the most popular she-cubs in Pride Rock. He rushed toward the center of the imperfect circle the others had formed around us like lightning across a bleak, gray sky. Jostling through the gossiping throng, he finally wound up next to Nala.

The odd stare he aimed at her displayed his bafflement. "What's going on?"

"Oh, Simba," gasped Sauda, "I've been waiting for a decent lion to show up. Can you please tell this tan _nobody_ to get lost?"

"Do you have a problem with tan fur?" countered Nala, restrained from leaping forth by the Prince, who barred her way with his paw.

Sauda smiled, quite satisfied with the future king's preventive action. Convinced that she possessed some sort of hold over him and feeling obligated to strengthen it, the vicious female fixed her eyes on the golden cub flirtatiously. He glowered at her with disgusted amusement and opened his mouth to speak.

"Nala, I'll handle this," he murmured sweetly, dropping the limb with which he'd stopped her.

Probably believing her _heartthrob_ would yield to her popular rival's charms, she complied meekly and gently scuffed backwards. Her head drooped like a flower confined to darkness as she waited for him to continue talking.

"Do you have a problem with _tan_?"

Each and every word was as clear as ice and as sharp as the fangs it passed. All the listening ears perked incredulously. Nala dropped her jaw, unable to explain to herself this dreamlike occurrence. Her heart did not just skip a beat; for more than a minute, it lay still.

Her mind had drifted away from the unreal scene before her; it had gone to party in a wonderful dreamscape with her happiest emotions as the guests of honor. She'd fallen into a fantasy which, perhaps for the first time, was based on a true event; something beautiful she hadn't merely made up to lull herself to sleep at night.

Sauda, rendered speechless, spun round abruptly and walked away with her nose pointing arrogantly at the vaporous blue ceiling and her eyes closed in indignation. Her followers and some wannabe popular girls caught up with her in no time. Others (an insignificant minority, I might add) stayed behind and praised the Prince for his _heroic_ deed, as they had put it. Most of them were cubs he'd never even exchanged a 'hi' with: the pariahs his friends disapproved of.

"You're bleeding," stated Nala concernedly, studying the three cuts Sauda's claws had left on my side.

Simba approached slowly after being drenched in a shower of compliments and inspected the wound as well. "Maybe we should go back and let Mom see it. She'll know what to do."

I snorted in disagreement and licked the scratches clean. "You see? It's nothing… No need to go back."

The two cubs kept their worried eyes transfixed to the three beads of viscous blood that had formed again.

"You sure?" inquired Simba dubiously, but raised no further arguments in reference to the subject upon receiving a nod for an answer.

Soon enough, everything about my little encounter with Sauda slipped from everybody's thoughts as if it had never happened and a seemingly more crucial matter was brought to light.

_What would be the next game?_

'Tag' was their best option, although they'd already played that. Finding something unique and equally fun proved inconceivably hard. Scrunching up their faces and calling upon all the powers of their vivid imaginations, the young ones tried to come up with a suitable entertaining activity. In spite of their mental strain, not one single idea enlightened their inhibited minds.

Thus, a moment of sullen brooding struck the bunch, which lasted only as long as it took one of its members to speak.

"Tarja," started the Prince, almost at an inaudible volume, as though he felt embarrassed about the doubt that bothered him. "I've been wondering…"

Evidently, he had been pondering over something completely different to what had the rest so busy. His ears lay flat against his skull, his paws remained motionless on the grass, and his tail didn't twitch nervously like the others around me did; he looked oddly serene.

"What are '_snows'_ like?"

My crumpled expression shook him. "W-what are you talking about?"

"Remember how you said you were a _snow_ leopard?" he asked rather shyly, beginning to fiddle with his claws.

Nala listened to the question and pulled a perplexed stare which resembled the one the inquirer bore. She faced me and sat next to him.

"You know?" she muttered, "I didn't get that either."

First, I endeavored to offer a good clarification, but all my explanations (and they were _extremely_ detailed) seemed to crease their faces with an even profounder bewilderment. All along, they had regarded the cold, white heavenly substance under discussion as an animal of some sort. Since I had told them my mother was a leopardess, they had outright deduced that my father ought to be the '_snow'_ (hence, the name '_snow leopard_'). This, actually, if I hadn't been born and raised in the tough snowy mountains, would've passed through my ears as a quite convincing and reasonable theory.

Eventually, my patience ran dry like all my water reserves had. I breathed out wearily, the noise shoving the other cubs from their worries. Before I could realize it, all eyes had fallen intently upon me, eagerly expecting an answer to the question posed by the future king.

"I can't put it any other way," I concluded. "Snow is just _snow_."

After the session of inquiries was closed, the young lions dedicated themselves to organizing the information I'd jammed their brains with. Later, Simba looked up at me with his eyes glistening excitedly.

"I know what we can play!" he hollered at a high pitch, rapidly picking up on the alarmed glares encircling him. Deeming his current tone unbecoming of royalty, he inhaled deeply, his chest swelling like something recently stung by a bee. Subsequently, he carried on smoothly.

"We can play '_tag'_ in the Snowlands. We can pretend the grass is… that _thing _Tarja was talking about."

_Snow, Simba. Snow..._

The proposal needed barely more than five seconds to be enthusiastically accepted by the entire group. Swiftly, Simba pushed one of the male cubs with his paw and bolted off. The crowd dispersed at a fast pace and, in the blink of an eye, the field was cleared. Only he who had been marked as '_it_' wandered about, rummaging through the bushes (_no_, the rocks wrapped in sheets of frost) for a friend to catch.

The cub approached the frozen rotten log behind which Nala had chosen to hide, and would've found her, if a branch hadn't snapped violently nearby. The unfortunate paw that had provoked the noise belonged to me. As he turned, a mischievous grin drew below his sparkling chocolate orbs. I swung round and scooted away as fast as leopards could. Repeatedly, my legs pounded harshly on the thick white makeup of the lifeless ground surface, acquiring impulse for long, forward leaps. But, outside our minds, this was the Pridelander's turf, and I knew it. The run would eventually exhaust all my energy and he would inevitably seize me.

Just as I'd foreseen, he managed to get hold of my tail after a rather short chase. He pulled me back with all his strength and cried three muffled words that were nevertheless notably discernible.

"_Tagh! Yuh it!_"

Once he released me, I strained to tag him back. As I did so, my pleasantly cold homeland vanished before me the same way it had suddenly appeared: out of magic. His limbs, which functioned better in the _new_ environment, carried the lion far away from me. Soon, he disappeared into the withered greenness of the surroundings. The sick, spiky carpet of vegetation spread around me like an endless sea. Sharp, dry waves rippled across it toward different destinations with the gentle caresses of the damp wind.

"Guys, this isn't fair!" I huffed, swiveling my head back and forth. The occasional wretched chirrups of birds soaring by made the stillness of the savannah feel strangely uncomfortable. The creepy shadows of these flying animals swept past me through the ground. Other than that, I could detect no signs of motion, or life, for that matter.

"It's the Snowlands," I mumbled sulkily. "_I'm_ supposed to be invisible, not them."

I was fumbling through the bushes with my paws and sniffing the air carefully, although conscious that I'd probably stumble into nothing but bugs, when a recent memory glowed in my head like a star in the prime of its youth.

The frozen log (now, it was a regular fallen trunk), Nala's hiding spot…it was lying right in front of me!

I crept closer very cautiously, putting in practice the hunting tips Mom and Dad had given me long ago, in that icy home which now seemed to be worlds away. My ears perked attentively at the faint giggles that erupted from behind the wooden bar at irregular intervals. A broad smirk spread across my muzzle. It _was_ Nala! And she was _all_ mine…

Bringing my tummy low to the ground, I prepared to jump over the dead trunk and pin my prey. I could picture her coiled up beneath it, unsuspecting. _Perfect._

I sprang forth with all my might but, before I could get to her, a furry body shoved me aside, pinning me to the cracked soil with its tough paws. As it stood on top of me, its weak shadow crawled through me like a giant black serpent. For a while, it squinted down at me disapprovingly. At the sound of a dubious voice, it opened its gleaming eyes wide, as if it'd been hypnotized by a swinging pendulum, and stole a quick glance back at its caller, who'd poked her head out of her hiding place.

"Nala!" exclaimed Simba shrilly, leaping off of me and sitting down on his haunches before the tan cub, his chest filled with pride. "I saved you."

Sarafina's daughter smiled humorously and climbed over the log, digging her claws into its rotten surface. "Yeah, right. Like _she_ could hurt me."

"I'm right here, you know," I interjected, rising to my paws gently so as not to damage the wound on my side more than it already was. The scratches had become three thin, ugly yellowish stripes encircled by clotted blood. It hurt tremendously when I performed brusque movements. Simba was right; I needed to show it to an adult. But infections didn't _always_ require instant attention; Mom had told me so. Besides, I liked playing 'tag', especially now that I'd been ridden of the burden of being '_it_' with the Prince's _courageous_ intervention.

"You could still say _'thank you,'_" pointed out Mufasa's son, slightly upset by her depreciating comment.

She eyed him avidly, a bright smile burning secretly behind her sapphire orbs. She seemed to have put a spell on him, like the ones 'hormones' (according to Mom, they were the reason adolescents behaved like they did) put on boys and girls when they start growing up. He still hadn't reached that tender age, yet he was already acting like Valo, who would drool pathetically over all the leopardesses we ran into in the mountains.

She hopped onto the ground and faced him. "Okay," she said, stepping even closer to the golden cub. "Thank you," she whispered coyly into his left ear, and proceeded to lick him in the cheek.

For what seemed an eternity but had actually been no more than two minutes, they stared at each other like they had done the night before. Silly grins gripped their muzzles when they realized what had just happened.

"W-why did you do _that_?" asked the Prince, suddenly imprisoning his happy expression behind a mask of utter perplexity and astonishment.

"Oh," gasped Nala, thinking up a suitable excuse. She must've found it hard to lie with a million butterflies fluttering madly within her stomach and her head.

"Ah… it's…" she slurred on, unable to blow the winged insects away from her airy thoughts. Suddenly, her crooked frown of concentration blossomed into a huge smile of relief. "It's the way to say 'thank you' in the Snowlands! Tarja told me."

He looked like he hadn't bought it. Upon watching his stern glare slacken slowly into his casual gaze, I realized that he had.

"The others are still hiding," remarked Simba, changing the subject. "We should carry on playing."

"Yeah," I agreed, walking up to him. "But guess what?" I went on, smiling slyly while laying a paw upon his shoulder. "Tag! You're it!"

"Hey!" he croaked, a bit shaken, as it was instantly withdrawn. Laughing, I streaked alongside Nala toward an area where the grasses were even taller. Simba, who hadn't hesitated to give chase to us, did not stay far behind. Once he lost our track, we huddled into a little, secluded spot and waited for the danger to pass. My whitish fur imperiled our cover; twice, he almost caught us out of the corner of his eye.

Much to our convenience, the golden cub soon found another playmate to pursue. Our bodies slumped onto the muddy floor of the hideout and, as we panted the exhaustion off them, our eyes shimmered at the thought of our victory.

"We did it!" she yelled excitedly after recovering.

"Yeah," I nodded, exhaling noisily. "By the way, that is _so_ not the way to say _'thank you'_ in the Snowlands."

Nala blushed and giggled bashfully. "I know."

* * *

**Once again, I'm sorry about the delay. My college schedule is very tight (personally, I think they want me to kill myself). I already mentioned this before in the last VH AN, but I'll say it again anyways (for non-VH readers ;) ): I'll be posting chapters for both of my stories about once a month, if possible. However, I don't want to make any promises. Most likely, it'll take much longer. Additionally, I should warn you that LLS chapters will not be as long as VH chapters. **

**That said, I hope you liked ch. 4. I decided to make this story 7 or 8 chapters long. I guess we're halfway through then, aren't we? **

**Pleeeeeeease review! Reviews make my day; they cheer me up (and motivate me to write faster ;) ). I didn't get as many reviews for ch. 3 as I'd gotten for chs. 1 & 2. :( **


	5. A Gift from the Stars

Chapter 5: A Gift from the Stars

The hours passed really quickly out in the savannah; they always do when one's having a lot of fun. The sun, unbeknownst to everyone but me, had melted beyond the rim of the horizon. Only fuzzy, red streaks painted the darkening sky now. Soon, they would also fade into the rapidly spreading gloom. The field practically glowed orange under the soft shower of decaying afternoon light, and so did all the animals lumbering along it.

I'd never seen such beautiful sunsets as the ones this land had to offer, not even during the Snowlands' sunniest summers. Still, nothing could match the pleasantly cold feel of the snow under my paws, or the lulling whooshes of the icy mountain breeze. I would've given up a thousand of these sunsets just to breathe the cold air of my family's cave again, if only for less than a second. No matter how comfortable the Pridelanders made me feel, this wasn't _home_, and it never would be; the sultry weather constantly reminded me of that.

Just when Chumvi had pounced on the elusive Eshe, the lionesses' cries interrupted the game, demanding that the group return immediately to Pride Rock. Their laughter having been replaced with long, dismal sighs, the younglings set off for their rocky den at a sad pace.

Nala had spent the whole day by the Prince's side. Although they did partake of the many entertaining activities the group had come up with after finishing with '_Tag in the Snowlands'_, they didn't show as much interest in them as the rest. They each seemed lost to anything that wasn't the other. I wasn't the only one to pick up on it, though; repeatedly, the others remarked on the lovebirds' unusual intimacy with such jeers as they thought more appropriate to force bashful grins from their muzzles. Of course, whenever confronted by them, they'd both deny the existence of any relationship between them beyond that of friendship. But the uneasy manner in which they would declare it suggested something completely different.

Even if Nala hadn't confided her _little _secret to me, I would probably have found out about her feelings eventually; there was some sort of inexplicable chemistry between the two: a mutual correspondence only a fool could fail to notice. Their eyes burned as bright as the sun when they were together, and their silly beams looked just like Mom's did whenever Dad whispered that he loved her into her ear. Long ago, she'd described to me the bittersweet nature of love. Its fragrant flowers. Its hurtful thorns. How it could steal your heart and yet leave a smile on your face. How it led to everlasting happiness if righteous, or to a silent self-destruction if unrequited.

I didn't understand how any sane living being could truly enjoy experiencing such conflicting emotions. But then again, love and madness, according to Mom, stemmed from the same place in all hearts. And, up to now, she hadn't got anything wrong.

Maybe falling in love entailed losing your mind or something…

"Hey, what's with you?" asked Nala, her brows wrinkled in confusion.

Her sapphire orbs shimmered like melting ice under the dimming twilight as they met mine, straining to decipher the meaning of my distracted expression. Without my noticing, we had walked for almost fifteen minutes; the monolithic fortress where the adults awaited our arrival stood just a couple of feet away. I tried to restrain the crooked frown my lips desired to show so strongly, although to no avail.

Her saggy countenance revealed her honest concern. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing, really. I was just thinking…of home."

The tan cub fixed her glum gaze upon her front paws, which advanced coordinately along the earth's soft, green coating. "Do you miss it?"

My languid nod, judging from the strange look she shot at me, must've surprised her very much.

"But I thought you liked it here!" she insisted shrilly. "Aren't you happy with us?"

The young lions heard the girl's fervid inquiry quite well, but did not swing around or glimpse back as they would surely have done under other circumstances; instead, they padded on determinedly. Showing up after nightfall could cost them an entire day of fun.

"It's not that. It's…"

"Hey, what's going on?" interjected the golden cub striding ahead of us, before falling back and comfortably placing his pudgy form in the gap that lay between the tan cub's body and mine. The instant his cheerful voice swept into her ears and compelled her light-blue irises to sparkle excitedly, I heaved a quiet sigh of relief. At least for the moment, I could rest assured she wouldn't bring up the issue about my homesickness; _her Prince _would occupy her mind with far different thoughts.

Seeing as the she-cub remained mute, he spoke again. "Are you listening?"

A refreshing gust of wind hushed his feeble voice. Upon receiving no reply, his ears dropped hopelessly, as though from guilt. His honey eyes swerved in my direction and, with the assistance of his raised eyebrows, implicitly demanded to know what he'd done wrong.

I shrugged my shoulders, but Nala recovered before Simba caught my gesture. "Yeah… I'm fine," she giggled heartily.

His fears dispelled, he veered his head toward the girl and smiled warmly. "So what were you talking about?"

"Oh," gasped Nala, a mischievous smirk spreading across her muzzle. "Just about the thirty nine times I pinned you today."

"I _let _you win!" he stated boisterously, then gazed haughtily at the blackening sky. "My dad _always _says I have to be polite to girls."

A snort of derision fled our mouths as his excuse tickled our lungs. Putting up no further arguments, the indignant golden cub quickened his pace to catch up with his best friend. He had stretched his paw to tap him on the shoulder when, unexpectedly, a tremendous force shoved him aside and pushed his body to the ground. A squeak of surprise on his part drew all attention toward him. Low laughs struck the keening winds of dusk silent.

A glower of mingled fury and mortification crossed the Prince's face. "Nala, what are you doing?" he grumbled almost inaudibly, his teeth clamped together tightly.

In turn, the girl smirked with half-closed eyes. "You're such a sore loser!"

"Okay, _you _won," he said under his breath, wary of the spectators' snickers pealing about him. "That's what you wanted to hear, right? Now, let me go!"

On discerning a spark of anger in the Prince's tone, she thought it best to comply. "Alright, alright!" she grunted wearily. "There's no need to get so upset."

Hadn't she obeyed, he would most likely have snapped at her; he looked _that _desperate to have her off of him. As the tan cub set her left leg back, the air regained its peace and the cubs prepared to resume their walk.

Simba would have jumped to his paws and joined Chumvi as he had intended to do in the first place. Nala would have lagged behind, moping and perhaps wishing she could go back in time to undo her actions. The two would have entered the dark cave along with their pals and, after hearing out whatever chidings their parents had in store for them, lain on the smooth, stone floor, in remote spots, without addressing each other for the rest of the night. By sunrise, the whole conflict would have lost its grip on their consciences and drowned in the shadowy ocean of unimportant memories flowing in the back of their minds; they would inevitably have lived down this unpleasant episode.

But, as I'd come to learn, destiny constantly slings rocks at you, and it selects the biggest and coarsest of all the available ones for when you're drifting off. This time, it had chosen to surprise Nala with the sharpest.

Nala withdrew her paws from the boy's chest, feeling for solid ground with her right hind limb. Much to her misfortune, it stumbled on a thin, twitching strip of fur instead. Simba's eyes puffed out like a frog's gullet, as though they were just seconds away from popping out of their sockets. Tears gathered under his lids, ready to pour forth as soon as the pressure exerted by her paw on his tail intensified.

Two had already travelled down his cheeks when he finally resorted to the most heart-wrenching yelp he could discharge. Nevertheless, his cry was interrupted just when I thought my ears would gush with blood. His pained expression had hit Nala with the strength of a hurtling asteroid, and the resulting shock wave rippled all the way down to her limbs at an inestimable speed, causing them to tremble out of control. In the blink of an eye, they succumbed to the constant pressure of gravity and spilled her on top of the golden cub. Her muzzle collided harshly against his, throttling what was left of his doleful howl within his throat.

A long, awkward silence flogged the witnessing crowd. All kinds of faces could be observed among the young group. While the girls bore gapes of disbelief and underlying envy, the boys' lips quivered in a not entirely honest effort to withhold the ferocious guffaws bouncing within the confines of their mouths.

The Prince pushed Sarafina's daughter off and hopped to his paws at the speed of light. As he gazed about nervously, his chest rose and fell in frantic gasps of what struck me as embarrassment, but could easily have been befuddlement. After all, it wasn't every day that someone his age kissed a girl, either voluntarily or unintentionally.

At length, he broke into a fit of high-pitched croaks, his cheeks taking on a vermillion color underneath the yellowish-brown fur which shielded them.

"I didn't mean to… She… I… It was an accident!"

His clarification didn't prove the least bit helpful. The young lions shattered the tense stillness that had hitherto prevailed with wild peals of laughter. Nala lifted herself up and, amidst the aggressive waves of taunting shouts, padded up to Simba's side. Her devastated grimace disclosed the emotions afflicting her heart; they didn't differ much from the ones the future king had displayed a moment ago.

"I'm sorry," she murmured timorously, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

The male swung round suddenly and greeted the she-cub guilty for the overwhelming humiliation that was now eating him up with the gloomiest scowl; she even flinched in fright. His lips parted to give utterance to a cubbish growl that nevertheless sounded scary (maybe because it was so full of scorn).

"It was all _your _fault!" he burst out ruthlessly, crystal trickles of anguish adorning his cheeks. "Why did you have to pin me in front of everybody? What were you trying to prove?"

"I didn't mean for it to end like _this_!" She matched his volume, but her tone was one of regret rather than rage.

He faced away for about five seconds, letting her explanation spread through his worked-up brain. "You know what?" he scoffed, pulling a fatal smile that somehow pulverized all hopes of reconciliation. "Sauda was right! You _are _a freak!"

Saying no more, the frustrated cub wiped the tears off his face with a single motion of his right paw, jostled his way out of the furry circle the curious bunch had imprisoned him in, and headed for Pride Rock on his own. Chumvi hurled a glance of sympathy at Sarafina's daughter, but then went after his best friend without the slightest hint of indecision in his expression.

The crowd watched as the night shadows consumed the two drifting boys. Afterwards, they jerked their eyes back toward Nala, probably expecting to encounter an even more broken, tearstained face. Surprisingly enough, the salty rivulets had dried up completely; her absent stare conveyed not one painful emotion, merely the coldness of a deceased heart.

Thus, in the brooding silence that descended, the Pridelanders proceeded to their destination, guided by the dim light provided by the few stars which had shown up. The grass rustled unrelentingly and stray branches cracked like fragile bones under our paws. The sky had shed its last traces of color and was now death-black, decorated with grayish clouds of monstrous shapes. Some slid across it very slowly, like spreading tentacles, probing for good spots from where to unload their liquid content. Others, rounder and heavier, seemed to glower down vengefully at all the animals that had the gallantry to roam the dark fields.

By the time we got to the den, the sick atmosphere had roared thrice. Fortunately, no downpour delayed our already tardy return. The adults, as I'd suspected, had been worried about us. The scolding, however, turned out to be worse than I'd predicted. The lionesses' angry voices thundered in all listening ears, constraining them to drop severely. Some even proved harsh enough to elicit bitter sobs from the weaker cubs, among which _I_—and I'm not proud to say it—stood out pretty much like a white chrysanthemum in an endless sea of droopy sunflowers.

Only once had anyone rebuked me like Sarafina did tonight. And it had been Dad, after saving Lauri and me from a horrible death. I'd challenged my brother to step into a creepy, abandoned passage we'd stumbled upon while playing '_Tag'. _That craggy, narrow corridor led to the home of what was perhaps the biggest, scariest Amur leopard. I remembered how he'd cornered us, pressed his ferocious paws against the cold stone, and leapt forward with its jaws split wide apart. His sharp teeth could probably grind frozen quartz into gazillions of shiny pieces. But if anything had _really _scared me at that precise moment, it was his eyes: those cold, dead yellow spheres that so much resembled glass, shimmering with bloodlust.

Luckily, Dad jumped in right on time, pushing the vicious predator away from us. The two engaged in a brutal duel of slashes and roars of mixed rage and agony, a gory scene I would never forget no matter how hard I tried. Although my father succeeded in killing the fearsome beast, the fight left him exhausted and severely wounded. He strained to drive us back, but collapsed halfway from our hill.

His face blanched as more and more blood oozed from the gashes on his legs and chest and deluged the snow around him with a sick red; his body grew ice-cold, and there was a point when both Lauri and I lost control over our tears. The expression of disappointment which Dad had borne since we exited the Amur leopard's den was replaced by one of sadness and, lastly, by one of mild happiness.

"_Don't be scared,_" he whispered tranquilly, a flame of love illuminating his sleepy blue orbs before he closed them. Despite our insistent nudges and loud weeping, he never reopened them.

Maybe it was the combined effect of Sarafina's verbal punishment and the recollection of that fateful day that made my bawls much more noticeable than the rest's.

The lionesses stopped lecturing their children. Likewise, the little ones ceased their spurious crying. The whole pride rendered speechless, Nala's mother stepped closer to me. Her screen of vision stayed hitched to my teary eyes for a minute or so. Subsequently, it slid down toward the side of my body where Sauda's scratch lines had by now fully coagulated. The clot's unwholesome yellow color seemed to disquiet the tan lioness.

"Tarja!" she gasped upsettingly. "How did this happen?"

Before I could spit out the truth, those threatening green eyes with which the spiteful she-cub had so resentfully glared at me haunted my mind. By telling on her, I reasoned, I'd accomplish nothing convenient; I would simply get her into more trouble than she'd been in last night. And, sooner or later, she would obviously seek revenge.

Since not the feeblest sound dared escape my mouth, the tan lioness turned impatiently to her daughter. Knowing she had no other choice, Nala commenced a shy narrative regarding this day's events (naturally, she omitted the overly embarrassing parts). Sauda, who was being bathed by her mother in a close corner, listened intently. Her concentrated stare tightened into a murderous yet desperate glare as the girl she despised touched the subject about my wound.

"We were just playing a bit roughly!" My yelp cut her short right when she was going to reveal my attacker's identity. Hopefully, I spared her from what would have been a lifetime of inexorable suffering in the paws of a foe hungry for vengeance.

The bully breathed out the air locked in her lungs. Her features relaxed; a wicked smirk much like the one she'd exposed after she had struck me stamped out her angst.

"Sarafina," chimed in Sarabi, sitting down next to her and examining the wound painstakingly. "I still have some of Rafiki's pain relievers in the back of the cave. She can have one now, and I'll send for Rafiki first thing in the morning."

"But it doesn't hurt that much!" I complained, looking up at both of them.

"It _will _when you lie down, sweetie," rejoined the Queen with that calm, sturdy voice which characterized her. "But don't worry! It doesn't taste all that bad."

A balmy chuckle spewed through her lips as she strode away to fetch the medicine. _All that bad... _I'd heard that on about a thousand other occasions, and, frankly, they were never right. Because it _always _tasted bad. Gross and… _superbad._

The future king's mother reappeared seconds later with a bunch of sallow reeds between her teeth. She dropped it before Sarafina and instructed her to have me eat not more than one. Smiling down at Nala and me, she then hurried to her slightly elevated sleeping spot and snuggled up to her snoring mate. The youngest member of the royal family, however, was missing.

"Where's Simba?" asked the tan cub to her mother, as if she'd somehow read my mind.

Sarafina's brows contracted in thought. "Well," she argued, rummaging through her head for a suitably indirect term to employ. "Sarabi usually makes him…_go…_before bedtime."

"And you know what?" added the lioness, her face lighting up at an idea. "You should go too."

"But Mom!" cried Nala complainingly. "I'm not a little cub anymore."

The adult flung a knowing grin at her daughter, who headlong broke eye contact with her and flushed. "Oh, you're not?" she teased, wary of her reaction. "If I'm not mistaken, the last time-"

"Okay! Okay! _Okay! _We'll go!" she cut her off precipitately, on the verge of shouting. Prior to carrying out the request, she padded closer to her mother and spoke to her in almost incomprehensible whispers. "You didn't have to embarrass me in front of _her_," I thought she'd mumbled. By the huffy scowl she displayed when she whirled about, my guess might've been correct.

"Let's go," she muttered sulkily. "And, by the way, you heard _nothing._"

Having nibbled one of Rafiki's sour reeds—when Sarabi had mentioned him, I'd wondered who he was; now, I didn't really care—and swallowed the pieces, I trailed behind the tan cub toward the mouth of the cave.

The ogling moon poised solemnly on the zenith, bigger and brighter than ever. It appeared the clouds had been scared away by its rays of pale silver, for I could detect none gliding across the miles of diamond sky.

During my first day in the Pridelands, the savannah's winds had felt dry and utterly suffocating; tonight, they were surreally mellow and cool. The grasses swayed in the quiet flatlands below, coated in the ghostly gleam the stars had bestowed upon them. Not a single soul ambled around at this late hour, nor did any lie awake. One which looked awfully unsettled, though, sat on the edge of Pride Rock, where the King would normally stand to welcome the warm kiss of dawn, staring out into the stippled ceiling.

"What's wrong with Simba?"

Nala's ears pressed down against her skull, evading my doubt, and her eyes flicked toward a narrow path that led to the lower part of the rock structure we were heading to. "Let's get it over with," she suggested at a gloomy, low pitch, "and go back to sleep."

"But he looks so _down_!" I objected, a statement the tan cub deliberately ignored. "Maybe _one _of us should talk to him."

"He already made it clear that he _hates _me," countered Nala, turning a stern glare on me. Evidently, she had understood my implication and did not like it at all. "Why do you want me to go so much, anyway? He's only gonna yell at me like he did before!"

She panted exasperatedly, hoping to blow away the fog of vexation asphyxiating her. Once she regained her composure, she continued. "Besides, I already told him I was sorry, and it did no good."

"Perhaps you should expand a bit more on your apology."

Nala expelled a sigh of hopelessness and trudged past me, signaling me to follow with a shy motion of her right paw. Refusing to obey, I planted myself on my haunches with a dull thud. She glanced back over her shoulder and heaved yet another sigh, although this time it sounded like one of impotence.

"You're not going to move until I talk to him, huh?"

I shook my head swiftly. "Nope."

She speared a fatigued look up at the shiny smears speckling the atmosphere's blue-black shroud, as if begging for mercy, then treaded forth reluctantly until she stood almost beside the golden cub. Unaware of the girl's presence, the Prince remained as still as a corpse, entranced by the outstanding view.

A mild breeze brushed past Nala and crashed into his back; the air waves scattered about him like a vanishing specter. Recognizing the aroma that wafted into his nostrils, Mufasa's son stole a quick glimpse backwards. Astounded, the she-cub cringed back slightly and exhaled a hollow gasp. Moonlight shone on the tears that ran down his glinting honey eyes, conferring upon the boy's visage an aspect sadder than death.

"S-Simba," exclaimed Nala despondently. "Are… are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" he sobbed as he swung his head back violently toward the landscape, teardrops splattering on the cold stone. "It's just that… S-something got in my eye."

The wind's acute hooting soon stifled his waning sniffles. A long period of silence ensued, only to be succeeded by the dreary singing of lonely crickets. For what felt like a lifetime, nothing other than their awful chirping rang in my ears.

I realized now why the Queen had advised Sarafina to administer the sedative in very low quantities. My legs' strength declined fast, causing my numb body to flop onto the smooth ground. I couldn't move a muscle, and a funny dizziness struck against my skull like lightning upon the peak of a high mountain. But I still distinguished their shadowed frames contrasting with the sky's dim-lit backdrop, which cleaved into the distant, blurry horizon.

And Nala looked more than ready to act.

Mustering all the courage stored inside her soul, Nala inhaled hard and stepped forward, positioning herself next to the disconsolate boy. "Listen, Simba," she spoke up, although quivering from fear of failing, "I-I'm…. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to humiliate you in front of everybody. I… I was just playing! All I wanted was to be your friend! You have to believe that!"

Her voice had cracked in the middle of her speech. She didn't notice it, but tears were hewing their way through the short fur on her cheeks, glistening under the night lights as Simba's did. Deeming her apology pointless, the girl sighed mournfully and started walking away.

"Nala, no," blurted out the future king, fixing his gaze on her ebbing silhouette. "_I'm _sorry."

As she veered toward him, she noticed that a rather _desperate _light beamed from his brown irises. "Please, don't leave," he concluded with a rough snuffle, as if his nose were terribly congested.

Once again, the tan cub approached Simba very slowly, a tiny gleam of hope burning within her. "You're not angry?"

"I was," he confessed, never averting his eyes from hers. "But I shouldn't have been, and I shouldn't have flipped out like that. I don't want us to fight. I… I really like you."

His voice had reduced to a timid whisper when he expressed this last. Nala had not anticipated the announcement and, consequently, froze in shock and incredulity. Interpreting her disbelieving features as rejection, the Prince clamped his honey orbs shut. More tears streamed down his face as he returned to his former spot in a morose silence.

It took Nala a while to recover completely and process what she'd been told. That part of her which chose not to embrace happiness when it stood right before her still could not accept the sugar-sweet meaning behind each word that had passed his lips. Maybe she feared that, when she revealed her feelings, she would suddenly wake up and realize it had all been nothing but a blissful dream. Nonetheless, she opted to take that chance and shyly sidled up to the boy's side.

"I like you too," said the tan cub, and proceeded to rub her head gently against his neck. In response, a soft purr rumbled in the young prince's throat. A weak smile drowned his sorrow. Deeming it necessary to reciprocate the gesture of affection, Simba bestowed a light lick upon her cheek.

"W-what was that for?" asked Nala, in a giggly fashion which denoted glee tinged with surprise.

"I'm just saying '_thank you_'," replied Simba jauntily. "You know, Tarja's way."

"Thank you? Why?"

"For being such a great friend, even when I…"

At this point, Rafiki's drug had so much tampered with my senses that whatever Simba had uttered disintegrated like vapor into the dark; its echo was destined to linger exclusively in Nala's memory and his own. However, when I vaguely made out the gape of astonishment upon him, I deduced that something had cut him short. Upon gazing up, I thought that _something _was perhaps the most beautiful show of nature I'd ever witness.

Both cubs admired the unworldly phenomenon, sharing a funny stare of amazement. The atmosphere had brusquely lit up with bazillions of shooting stars. Their blazing tails seared its black belly with intense white flames, leaving fine, linear scars upon it, before winking out aloft the horizon. It was truly a breathtaking spectacle.

Nala wrenched her sight away from the enthralling meteor shower for barely more than a second to check on Simba. Finding his eyes riveted on the storm of lovely dancing lights, she felt a huge fatigue overtake her muscles and determined upon resting her head on his shoulder, probably guessing he wouldn't even pick up on it. And although he _did _notice (I caught him eying her with a smile), he didn't mind. It appeared the silent pandemonium of glowing contrails would never cease, and that Simba and Nala would not move for the rest of the night.

Like the stars, my mind flurried toward sleep in smoldering fragments. During my last moments of consciousness, ideas burned out fast in my brain, one after another. Most were wildly imaginative and disorganized, but one stood out from the misty jumble, perfectly clear and, in a childish way, rational. It occurred to me that perhaps tonight the stars had fallen for Simba and Nala, overjoyed to see they had reconciled.

That fantastical conception, though, sunk into obscurity as the shadows of the night hazed my vision.

* * *

**What did you think? PLEASE REVIEW! It's been quite a long time since my last update on this story, but it's getting harder and harder to write. From Mondays to Saturdays, I return home exhausted after more than 12 hours of class, then I have to review the lessons and prepare for the next day, and by the time I'm done I just want to drop dead in bed... Summarizing, don't expect ch. 6 to come out right away.**

**By the way, I you haven't done so, you can check out the oneshot I posted last week. It's called "Love The Hardest Way". It's the spookiest SNL fic you'll ever come across! ;D (Just kidding, I'm sure I'm not the only Pet Sematary/TLK fan out there)**

**On a completely unrelated note, I think I'm addicted to Black Veil Brides! Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter... and, once again, PLEASE REVIEW! :DD **


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